LotR 135, 136, 137 - Journey Along the Anduin (12, 13, 14)

Dec 13 2020

Tags

Three games today, with a work colleague. The first (12) went so-so, but we ended up losing Gimli in Stage 2. We had a bad build up of enemies, my hand just didn't work all game (Leadership/Lore), and my colleague's hand (Spirit/Tactics) had some economy troubles. Regardless, we did ok considering our hands and what the encounter deck served up. One notable thing about this game was the amount of location clearing accomplished by Legolas with Gondolin Blade: 3 progress each kill, and he made a lot of kills. If I recall correctly, what did Gimli in was a one of a 3 treachery encounter pull. He already had 4 hits on him.

Game 2 (13) we had to scoop on Turn 2 due to Hill Troll coming out right away and killing Gimli or Aragorn. I don't recall exact details.

Game 3 (14) went a lot better. We stalled in Stage 1 to build a huge tableau of allies. I managed to pull Steward of Gondor early on so I had the resources to do, and passed Theodred's questing resource usually to Legolas or Eowyn. Once Faramir was played, we were able to quest through Stage 2 in a single turn, then hammered the couple of enemies which were in the staging area, a Beastmaster and Wargs if I recall correctly.

All in all an excellent afternoon.

The decks

This set of plays with my work colleague is progression-style, the fellowship set Eowyn and the Odd Fellows. This is a single core fellowship with a Leadership/Lore deck, and a Spirit/Tactics deck.

The Leadership/Lore deck is A Noble Core Rides Forth, and features the power trio of Aragorn, Denethor, and Theodred. It's a pretty strong deck in a fellowship.

The Spirit/Tactics deck is [A Noble Core Quests for a Fight]https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/14516). This deck is not quite as strong, as it is overweighted with Spirit compared to Tactics. It could probably use a bit of rebalancing, but Tactics is just really thin in the core set. May do some rebalancing for Escape from Dol Guldur.

What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

Have a solo game ready to play.
Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
Referee a game in progress.